P.B. Chronicles

[Ace]

The P.B. Chronicles[/i] are the newsletter issues from the PB Fan club. I now have some in my possesion thanks to a very generous woman.

Some photos from the Volume I: Issue I; May 15, 1985:


PB with Sean for on a photo shoot for a book on teddy bears by a friend Nancy Ellison


PB with Christopher


PB with Cassie

[sparklingblue]

My, those are sooo sweet! Thank you so much for sharing!

[curious george]

I love the first one. How adorable!

cg

[Ace]

It is adorable isn't it? I wonder if the teddy bear book was ever published, guess I'll have to do a search. And isn't it something that someone so dark has these ultra blonde babies? Paris is just as blonde as Sean. Who said brunette was a dominant gene? ;D

Ace

[Ace]

Ah there doesn't seem to be one published according to Amazon but then it could be long out of print. He is in her recent 2001-02 book

Starlets: Before They Were Famous
Nancy Ellison & Paul Theroux

For 25 years Nancy Ellison was one of Hollywood’s leading photographers. This rarely seen collection of her images is an unprecedented view of stars and wannabes at that pivotal moment early in their careers after which they either shone brightly or vanished forever. Starlets features over 200 photographs of female and male starlets including household names Geena Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Rachel Ward, Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Patrick Swayze and River Phoenix.

Ace

[curious george]

::heads back to library site to look for it::

Somehow I never thought of Pierce as a "starlet."

cg

[curious george]

No such luck. But Xen, apparently she's done a book on Barbie dolls!

cg

[Ace]

;D Yes it's a rather disconcerting term for a man isn't it, but I gather it just refers to all burgeoning stars.

Yes she did a recent book on Barbie because her husband I believe owns Mattel! She mostly photographs ballet dancers now I believe.

Ace

[curious george]

How does her work compare to Degas?

cg

[Ace]

Mmmmmm she uses film instead of canvas?

Ace

[curious george]

I *meant* does she capture them as well.

cg

[Ace]

I'd assume so, she makes a living at it. I haven't seen any of her books though.

Ace

[Barbara]

Now I know why this lovely woman's name is familar. I may own one of her books.

-- B

[Ace]

Xenobia said:

Now I know why this lovely woman's name is familar. I may own one of her books.

-- B

Would that be her Barbie book by any chance.

Ace

[Yuliya]

How did I miss this thread? And what does Theroux have to do with it?

[Ace]

I don't know. How did you miss it? Were you out of town last June?

Theroux wrote the intro.

Starlet: First Stage at the Hollywood Dream Factory


Review

"Starlet stories abound in Hollywood-- some funny, some sad. Nancy Ellison's provocative photographs in Starlet are of beautiful actors and actresses who made it to star status."--Dominick Dunne

Playboy magazine, April 2002

Paul Theroux wrote a thinky intro, but he doesn't break a sweat. Looking at some of these pictures, you might.

Book Description:

Starlet is an homage-- a collection of archival material (1970-95) that covers a quarter of a century of shooting starlets by renowned Hollywood photographer Nancy Ellison. Many of her subjects became superstars--- but others existed so ephemerally only these beautiful images and the dreams they represent remain. But, they dared; they risked everything; and their beauty still remains as they once dreamt it.

Among the young hopefuls included at this first stage in their careers are Kim Basinger, Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Molly Ringwald, Rosanna Arquette, Jennifer Beals, Anne Archer, Grace Jones, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dana Delany, Robin Wright (Penn), Jennifer Tilly, Rachel Ward, Geena Davis, Andie MacDowell, Mariska Hargitay, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Sean Young, and many others.

Their images-- striking, adventuresome, sexy, fresh, vulnerable, sometimes wistful, dramatic, overeager, resistant, uncomfortable, and uncomfortably pretending-- are all seen through a curious, sympathetic, and extremely revealing eye.


Here's the Amazon.com reader review of the book:

Caution: Starlet contains much female nudity of the torso and derriere. The images are intended to be provocative, without being in poor taste. The book also contains occasional coarse words. If such things offend you, avoid this book.

If Starlet had a larger page size and a lower price, this would be a five-star book. It contains the writing and photography to warrant a five-star rating.

Starlet's theme is how an aspiring young actress or actor goes about defining herself or himself to attract the attention of Hollywood producers, directors, and casting executives while then going on to grab a mass audience in the theaters.

In the days of the studio system, the studio hired hundreds of such youngsters and tried to build them into stars around a preconceived marketing concept. Today, the youngsters have to do the same thing, but by relying on their own resources. It makes the odds much more difficult to overcome.

Ms. Nancy Ellison's photography from 1970-1995 shows a remarkable ability to capture the uniqueness of her strivers, rather than putting them all into simple molds. Her results seemed best at capturing the subtleties of personality, body type, and acting ability of the subjects when women were involved. But a few of her male photographs are quite remarkable, too.

Ms. Ellison's opening essay on her philosophy is very well done, and explains her work quite well. "To the viewer, the starlet holds this problem, availability, surrender, and finally, possession." "With another woman, I choose to be in collusion with her -- to seduce the world with her beauty." "What has she got that no one else has?" "It is the imagery that creates the desirability of the subject." "Starlet is an homage to all those beautiful creatures who posed for my camera hoping for stardom, and to their youthful dreams."

As fine as her essay is, it is easily outshone by Mr. Paul Theroux's musings about what a starlet is. He begins by recalling his experience as a youngster spotting Marilyn Monroe in Scubba-Hoo! Scubba-Hay! listed in the credits as "girl in rowboat" (which was actually a canoe). From there he describes the Margot Peters character in Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark. Mr. Theroux puts up many contradictory, but partially accurate, dictionary definitions. These ideas are contrasted with popular conceptions and how directors think about starlets. Ultimately, he feels that a starlet is many things including "the siren, the waif, the girl with screen potential, the babe, the expressive face, the eloquent [derriere] . . . ."

You will recognize and be interested in many of the photographs in the book. Most of the subjects went on to have noteworthy careers, but there are also unknowns who are probably out of the industry now.

My favorite female images were of Rosanna Arquette, Shari Belafonte, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Molly Ringwald, Jennifer Tilly, Grace Jones, Isabelle Adjani, Kim Bassinger, Catherine Hicks, Isabelle Huppart, Isabella Rosellini, Margot Kidder, Maud Adams, Heather Locklear, Sharon Stone, Glenn Close, and Arielle Dombasle. In terms of acting skill for the camera, Rosanna Arquette, Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppart, Sharon Stone, and Glenn Close will make the biggest impressions on you. These women were all quite young in these photographs (although clearly over 18) so there's a dewiness that you may not have seen before. On the other hand, strong character is also clearly present in some of these women at quite a young age. In others, emotional maturity is evident also.

My favorite male photographs were of Pierce Brosnan (the best in my opinion), Christopher Reeve, River Phoenix, and Nicholas Cage.

The page size for these images should have had an area about 40 percent larger. The details would have reproduced much better if that had been the case.

In many cases, a two page layout has five or six images on it. These images are really too small to do justice to the work.

I would like to mention that the captions were excellent. Ms. Ellison discusses the subject, the issues involved with the shooting, and makes broader observations about starlets in these captions.

For the number of pages in this volume, I thought the price was excessive. The volume felt more like one that should have had a suggested retail price of $27.50 to me.

Despite my quibbles, most people who love to look at beautiful women and handsome men will find this to be an outstanding volume.

I suggest that you take out photographs of yourself at various ages, and look objectively to see what these images tell you about how you represent yourself. In which ones are you playing a role? In which ones are you being yourself? What lessons do you draw from these observations and from seeing Starlet about how you should portray yourself in the future?

Let the beauty of your soul shine through!

Ace

[Yuliya]

I didn't miss it as such; I remember the pictures. They must've distructed me from everything else, so I didn't notice Theroux's name. I'm still surprised - either this book is deeper than I thought or he found something interesting in the subject. Or maybe he just likes the nudity of female derriere.

[Ace]

She's a very well known photographer, maybe he felt it was a priviledge to work with her. Or maybe they're friends. They recently did another together on I think Martha's Vinyard.

Ace

[Yuliya]

Yes, they did - The Romance of Martha's Vineyard. I think I know who did the writing. Photographs are very important, too, though, it's a great spot, very romantic. I hope they had fun making the book.